america's senate braces for a confirmation battle as a bomber pick so-called assassinations john brennan and the supposed maverick pacifist chuck hagel the top security. wilting under the welfare one in three tax pounds raised in the u.k. a pump handle for the burden weighing heavier and heavier on working brits. north korea lifts its fire wall for the visit of head of internet google limits reports the secretive states invited german economists as well to help it open up for foreign investment. we're reporting to one of fifty nights of rioting in belfast

flagging up the social and political divide in northern ireland these days as police used go on lethal force on loyalists angered by those restrictions and displaying the union flag. well over a good evening if you just joined us it's kevin away here in moscow tonight this is our th just after eleven pm here now first this hour a pacifist accused of being anti israeli in charge of the military and an apparent supporter of harsh interrogation methods in charge of intelligence they are president obama's picks to run the pentagon and the cia a washington correspondent garniture can profiles the nominees. by appointing chuck hagel as defense secretary president obama is arguably trying to change the perception that he has embraced bush administration national security policies

because after four years of militaristic foreign policy that's how people see it chuck hagel former senator from nebraska vietnam war veteran has been one of very very few u.s. politicians who opposed u.s. military expansion and who dares to question and dissent from washington orthodoxies on foreign policy one of them has to do with israel if you dare to publicly point out that the u.s. and israel are separate countries and american interests should trump israeli interests when they conflict and that's a subversive thing to say here in washington could be a career killer yet it catered for direct negotiations with hamas he condemned the power of the pro israel lobby in washington here's one of his statements to that effect the political reality is that the jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here i have always argued against some of the dumb things they do because i don't think it's in the interest of israel i just don't think it's smart for israel needless to say his nomination for the position of defense secretary has incurred a slew of objections for the past three weeks different interest groups have been

running attack as on t.v. saying things like he's soft on iraq and he's a bad choice for the job to go on like the vast majority of us politicians who keep repeating the all options are on the table mantra has allowed himself to say outright that attacking iran is a stupid idea is nomination is seen as a bold move on president obama's part and it's an important decision image wise for the president as hinted at possible changing foreign policy but many fear that charge could deliver that change in focus on more than substance because there's only so much one person can do in washington speaking of the other person along with chuck hagel president obama nominated his counterterrorism adviser john brennan as the next director of the cia john brennan has been in charge of some of obama's most controversial policies including the targeted assassinations program one where the to. inspiration determines who will be marked for execution without any due process oversight or transparency is the man who's been in charge of

president obama's kill list last year john brennan claimed that the u.s. drone program caused no civilian deaths in pakistan over the prior year which was an outright lie by so many accounts add to that the fact that as a bush era cia official mr brennan had endorsed torture and rendition and also was a vocal advocate bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program and we can see why he is the most fit for the job as the head of the central intelligence agency which over the years has evolved into a paramilitary force the logic some see behind nominating hago and brennan for these top national security positions is that when accused of being hawkish the president can say does my defense secretary lew kokesh to you if we choose the being soft he can point out his new cia director who can be accused of anything but being soft on the u.s. army colonel douglas macgregor thinks that if the senate approves the pentagon

chief we will see much less green from washington that. well there are a number of things first of all hago has been a very effective and strong critic of the interventions over the last several years and the mismanagement of our policies and the squandering of blood and treasure on missions that make no sense strategically for the united states that's what subset large numbers of people who have supported bad decisions the decision to intervene and then occupy iraq and then to transform the initial operation in afghanistan into a nation building mission president obama has always been disinclined to attack iran and i think we're going to see some evidence over the months ahead for an alternative approach which will rely more heavily on the go sheesh and so i don't think the the desire of the israeli lobby and the government interior in tel aviv for an attack on iran will will ultimately occur. sliding down a slippery slope into the economic abyss the eurozone it's

a new unemployment high with spaniards again the worst affected to talk about that a bit later the program and to the syrian crisis meeting aspirations for statehood with turkey paralyzed by fear is insurgent step of the game on home territory. one in every three pounds in taxes raised in britain is now being spent on welfare the numbers put together by a government department then paint a grim picture for a coalition prodding itself on reining in runaway bills but earlier i asked him if he's laura smith to explain what's being done about it. they are trying to bring this this wildly out of control well under control and what they're proposing is a one percent cap on the rise in benefits traditionally in this country benefits have risen in line with inflation inflation of course always much less much more than one percent so they're proposing a cap ministers say that the cap is needed because the state handouts have been rising twice as fast as wages during this time in the last five years benefits of

risen by twenty percent whilst wages have risen by just twelve percent but this proposal is not really that good if they do get through all those measures are considered comprehensive enough to do the job to rein in well first well ministers are hoping it's the coalition government that's proposing these measures and the labor gov the labor party that is it's pretty comprehensively opposing it's all about this kind of what we've seen in recent weeks this strivers versus skivers thing where the government says it wants to support people who are going out to work trying hard to make money versus the people who are staying in bed all day and they say it's fair because public sector pay under a seris the measures is being kept and private sector pay is rising below the level of inflation so why should people who are on benefits get more money and the tories go all about having to support these people and the stamp out its benefits culture

and make it more profitable for people to be working them for people to be sitting at home on benefits but again not everyone agrees so where is all the money go in short it's not all. well it's not and that's the key thing obviously a lot of it jobseekers allowance employment and support allowance that does go to people who are out of work but a lot of it goes to in fact two thirds of it goes to lower paid workers so people who are strivers these various drivers that we've been talking about essential workers nurses rubbish collectors people without whom the country would come down to its knees and that's what labor's talking about working tax credits child benefit those kinds of things and in fact a charity the children's society has come out and said that if you are single or single primary school teacher or a nurse with two children you're going to be losing four hundred twenty four pounds per year by two thousand and fifteen under these new measures so certainly very controversial it says we're not all in it together in fact what we are what we are government's proposing to do according to labor is hit households towards the

bottom of this is the economic scale much harder than they hit households further up and i mean look at that headline again one in every three pounds in taxes going to well for what is the average brit figure for that i suppose it depends which side of the fence you're on whether you're getting some of that welfare or giving it away. it does and i think i think the average person in the street is very keen to stamp out these skydivers as the go as the government so they initially called them but now is backing away from that people who are staying at home with the curtains drawn in bed while ordinary people striving to go out to work but the fact is these measures according to labor would hit those poor people harder more children in poverty they say the land or the situation says it could contribute to more homelessness and it'll hit women particularly hard because they're the people who child tax credits go to for example and of course people struggling to pay for rising inflation rising fuel prices rising food prices and to put food on the table

and then on the other side of the coin we've got a tax cut for the rich that will be introduced in april less anything happens if you earn over one hundred fifty thousand pounds a year after april you'll be paying five percent less tops and in many places two percent it'll be forty five percent if you're earning a million pounds that's going to save you forty thousand pounds per year and people are up in arms about. your smith speaking from london a bit earlier on. north korea known for its reclusiveness and tight internet controls is playing host to a high profile visit from the u.s. right now one of the guests being head of online giant google indeed the trip while promoted as a private and humanitarian one is bringing speculation about the company's plans may be to expand into the secretive state all of this is backed up by washington frowning on the visit calling for sanctions on pyongyang after the recent rocket launch meantime have also been reports to that north korean authorities are hiring german economists to help open up the country for foreign investment maybe as part

of john feffer about this he's from the washington d.c. institute for policy studies he outlined to me what north korea has to offer to investors it's got trained workforce highly educated and no trade unions i mean that's no trade unions are going to cause any strikes and that's a big plus for outside investors another thing is raw materials north korea has a normal amount of mineral wealth and at the moment china has pretty much locked up access to that but north korea i think is interested in getting a couple more bids maybe gave them more money there and then of course location north korea is in the middle of one of the top economic zones in the world so if you're going to open up a business in northeast asia why not think of north korea. coming up changing direction in search of a better life in a few minutes we report from venezuela which is becoming more appealing to people who fail to find economic and social harmony a more traditional a. wealthy

british style. market why not. why don't want to. really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kaiser report on r g. q news a secret lab or tour to mccurry was able to build most sophisticated robots which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything mission to teach me the creation of why you should care about humans in the world this is why you should care only on the dot com.

trouble silly normal and belfast has seen a fifth straight night of violence as police fire plastic bullets and water cannon that hundreds of loyalist protesters they're angry mobs hurled bombs and pricks back out the authorities injuring three but sixty officers been wounded about survivors over the last five weeks and synfuels decision to only fly the union flag on special days they've been reports two of loyalist paramilitary groups orchestrating the riots social justice academic peter shallow told us that they might want to use that confusion as a base for more violent action. there are several issues i think first of all in that area there are some laws parmalee leaders who are against the peace process

this other issues such as printing etc have been a cartoonist for people who disagree with the peace process forward and you know star brad is going to take two to come together and to give and give to these types of activities. through with one as there have been problems in this area of east belfast will last two years and there are people within the organization who are engaged in this violence there is another problem of course in northern ireland on the other side of the highest. what we're what we call this the republicans are those who wish to create a united ireland and they have been involved in a series of bomb attacks and shootings for the last three years and have also especially during periods like this world will try to use those are most fear of disharmony to try to your the in terms of their own violence a kurdish militant raid on a turkish border post has left thirteen people dead the soldiers eventually managed to force about their attackers that is the government and one insurgent group reportedly reached a tentative deal on disarmament which make up

a conflict that's as in fact dragged on for three decades there was a really good reports no turkey's meddling in syria may only embolden militants again imho. turkey's prime minister may have shot himself in the food by openly supporting the syrian opposition the country's leader may have overlooked the fact syria's political mayhem may have on turkey especially in the border areas largely populated by kurds some observers believe any turmoil in the region between un corralling damascus will have a devastating effect on to guns country. turkey now involved virtually in a war it's used as a base by the syrian rebels and now to the kurds or more will break the will but the dangers here are huge. guns reasoning behind his support for the rebels can stem from lessons of the recent past. what do

you. make. of the syrian opposition because they've made the same mistake in iraq with the kurdish region which is. now. i think gave the problem in syria but that could come as a dear cost. conflict between turks and kurds has been simmering for some thirty years with thousands of victims of both sides backed the last eighteen months have seen seven hundred deaths from the confrontation between turkish security forces and the kurdistan workers party or p k k recognized by some western nations as a terrorist organization some believe the thirty million strong kurds are ready to rise at a moment's notice to at least gain some autonomy if not reach their ultimate goal the kurdish state the syrian crisis may very well provide such an opportunity and

uncross increasing animosity towards both kurds and damascus it may very well be turkey that will end up being the biggest loser in this call that. game kurdish representatives in the turkish general assembly firmly believe no matter the outcome of the conflict the kurds in syria are set for some sort of autonomy and they're eager to follow suit the syrian kurds so will have their own status political status autonomy for long years we also struggling for democratic autonomy we want our identity to be recognized and we won. democratic autonomy regional autonomy then we should have our south governance right but these desires seem to fall on deaf ears within the turkish government within caracas kurdish conflicts coming under increasing scrutiny from human rights organizations accusations of rape torture kidnappings and use of chemical weapons against the

cause of pretty separatists have been backed up by independence through the records and investigations and are a major stumbling block on and crusade for e.u. membership the turkish government nevertheless seems determined to avoid the issue altogether instead of turning its attention across the border into syria if you niggas go r.t. . online getting armed to the teeth is a controversial day being set aside on the calendar in the united states a right wing group of americans is organize a special day to call on owners of weapons to buy and fire them we'll tell you why that single com also to the mystery of the missing million dollar meting seems a sledgehammer wielding things snatched it twenty five years ago now it's turned up again quarter of a century later the mathias missing more about bout them online from us. the euro zone's jobless rates hit

a new record high with spain again suffering the most followed by greece well nearly twelve percent are out of work across the block over a quarter of people in spain can't find a job one in number comes in with fresh demonstrations that imagery thousands of doctors be marching against government plans to partly privatized health care a move they fear will ultimately to further job cuts spanish political analysts miguel i'm sure what are those says it's an alarming sign that traditionally pro-government medical workers turning out protests. but it's interesting about these protests in the health care sector is that it is different from a sociological point of view from the protests we're seen around spain we've seen of course teachers and and. public sector workers of all sorts transport all the services are basically on strike or staging protests now what is different about the is that you have doctors which are traditionally in spain like elsewhere are traditionally more conservative they most of them they backed the government prior

to election so this is their own people that he sent happy with the way the government is going so i think it will it will make a difference it will it will cost some extra problems for that for the current government. as an employer brings to spread what was once a lot of prosperity that many of those who were hunting for a better life know my kids will expect the choices next than a report from lucia come from off from venezuela she telling us about why the country is becoming a more attractive place to move to a state with no end in sight to the financial crisis many are finding refuge in countries with an alternative economic model or some business well that represents a whole new opportunities the bolivarian republic may be a surprising choice after all it's been ranked as one of the most corrupt nations in the hemisphere whose murder rate exceeds that of iraq still the world bank says venezuela draws the largest number of immigrants after argentina with one million

flocking here in two thousand and ten alone. if we go rosa is one of them after decades of struggling in the u.s. she decided to start anew in venezuela. and that come to you completely alone you go that trying to find a new way but you really learn nobody helps you there nobody in caracas the helping hand came from the government a cheap loan to kickstart a small business and subsidies that enabled her to purchase this home that's why rosa and others like her see the country as a place where. you can move more freely here you have more opportunities. robust economic growth and increased spending on social projects to help create those opportunities having the state on your side in terms of the benefits is a huge thing because you don't have to worry about your basic necessities everyone has the right to universal free health care quality health care education at all

levels the government provide subsidies to start up small businesses medium sized businesses that do the same in terms of housing to help people if they're coming from a country where the economic crisis is so bad they've been cutting all those benefits but as well it begins to look like a paradise that may certainly seem to be the case for those on the bottom president hugo chavez helped bring the poverty rate down from fifty percent when he took office to roughly thirty one percent and the u.n. says venezuela has the lowest level of inequality in latin america. it's one child as diehard supporters among the poor but what about the rich critics say childless is alienating the wealthy many of whom turned out in droves to vote for his opponent in october closely contested election twenty first century socialism hasn't helped us it is her job as opponents blame his so-called socialist experiment for problems like limited foreign investment they say that it's driving businessmen and entrepreneurs out of the country. by daniel year g.'s himself

a young businessman disagrees after spending twelve years in barcelona he decided to return to venezuela not just for the economic benefits he says but for the chance to partake in a different sort of future order there are two very different political forces in this country one monster move towards capitalism the other is on the path of socialism in the october election the people of venezuela voted to make the country greener fairer to create more opportunities i mean in this regard many venezuelans like myself have decided to return home and so they do showing that for some gambling in venezuela system may be worth the risk you see catherine of r.t. venezuela. of course the main matter on the minds of people of venezuela right now is the health of their president to go chavez is due to be inaugurated on thursday to serve another term but he could be too ill to attend while he continues to battle cancer his political rivals the money the new election if he doesn't show up to be sworn in for his fourth term let me ask from asia times online told me

they'll be many who want to try to take advantage of the situation to undermine chavez's government. show his war is not a monolithic saying like us would dare to say the communist party in china there at least four or five different factions fighting for power and this is one of the problems a few we have an unsteady situation in terms of chavez health because there will be an internal struggle for power insights there is more in met the same time we're going to have more possibilities of foreign interests eeriest trying so you know a move or this process and i mean specially our friends in washington all the news lee will see an opening well maybe this is the beginning of the end up just because look let's split it up. around the world briefing china hundreds of people have rallied in a rare show of support for a liberal newspaper the chanted slogans for political and democratic reform outside the news said quarters of southern weekly the paper had been forced to change an

editorial calling for reform of the ruling communist party the protests comes after dozens of academics in china signed an open letter calling for the resignation of the provincial propaganda minister who they blame for the censorship. searches on four hundred missing people in tasmania as those wildfires continue to rage across southeastern australia warnings have been raised to the highest level they call that a catastrophic level in parts of the mainland state now of new south wales where more than one hundred thirty fires are burning they're being spurred on by strong winds and record temperatures most of the country's been baking above forty degrees celsius for several days. helicopters crashed in the amazon jungle in the east of peru killing all seven on board it crashed just minutes after it took off witnesses say the crew tried to drop cargo from a helicopter before hit the ground it's not yet know why the aircraft got into trouble three bodies have been recovered but the search for the others has been called off to choose their morning because of the swap like condition is that

having to ensure their. thanks for being with us tonight coming up to twenty six minutes now past eleven o'clock at night moscow time after the break max kaiser inspects the financial of the world's most efficient tax leech the u.s. military. using crime as a plague of the big cities but in a tiny arkansas town of twenty five thousand it is really getting out of hand pure gold is a property crime index of more than double the national average and rape burglary and assault are also way above average per gold is a dangerous place to live in but what's the answer to living in constant fear of criminals well the mayor thinks that the answer to that problem is to live in

constant fear of the government how logical the mayor and police chief have a doorstop plan to send out police patrols with fifteen that full swat are to i guess intimidate the local population into submission well actually the plan is for them to stand around it ask people an important question ask them to show i.d. the answer to crime isn't a police state sending guys out with automatic weapons and body armor around just to check people's i.d.'s like it's the berlin wall or something won't do anything a guy who breaks into your house for crystal meth money isn't going to be affected by this only the good average citizens will have to show an arm thug of their id just to go buy milk but that's just my opinion.

well the kaiser reports i'm max kaiser or what is it good for some say absolutely nothing but from what i see it's a good way to support a bunch of bullets welfare queens and virginia maryland and d.c. stacey yes max this is come to light recently as there's been all sorts of alleged you know wrangling over the budget in the united states this whole deficit ceiling and how much we need to cut why is the pentagon off the table well if you look at this chart this is department of defense spending and real inflation adjusted dollar.